WAC expansion: What it means for San Jose State

*** Here’s an early version of a column I wrote for Friday’s Merc, with a few thoughts up top:

* WAC commish Karl Benson made it clear today that the conference was waiting for Montana’s decision before pursuing/inviting Seattle as a non-football member.

* Benson was blunt about his disappointment over Montana electing to stay in the Big Sky. But he also seemed to indicate the school could make the jump in the future. (“Who knows what’s going to happen five years from now.”)

* It’s also evident that Benson believes there could be more realignment in the near future, possibly involving the WAC. Such a scenario would no doubt start with TCU moving to the Big East, creating a ripple effect that would wind its way through the Mountain West, C-USA and the WAC.

* The column …

The Western Athletic Conference secured its future Thursday by adding Texas State, Texas-San Antonio and Denver beginning in 2012.

Here’s what the development means for San Jose State’s football program: Opportunity.

The reconfigured WAC will have a void at the top of the standings without Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada, which are headed to the Mountain West Conference.

There’s no reason San Jose State, for all its recent struggles, can’t become one of the league’s best football programs.

The Spartans won’t be near the bottom in tradition. They’ll be near the top.

They won’t have one of the smallest budgets in the league. They’ll have one of the biggest.

“The potential is there,’’ WAC commissioner Karl Benson said Thursday. “We’ve been waiting for San Jose State football to deliver, so to speak. (The Spartans) won the New Mexico Bowl, and we thought they were there …

“San Jose State is going to take advantage of the new era to contend. I said earlier, Is Texas State or UTSA the next Boise State. Is San Jose State the next Boise State.”

Texas State, which is located in San Marcos, plays in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA); Texas-San Antonio is forming a team to compete at the FCS level next fall before making the major college jump.

For all the advantages that come with being in Texas – all the money, community support and in-state talent – the schools won’t be in position to win the WAC upon arrival. (Denver does not play football.)

Of the six holdover schools — a group that includes Idaho, Utah State, Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State — only Hawaii has been to more bowl games than San Jose State.

Only Hawaii will have a significantly bigger budget (partly due to its massive travel costs).

Only Hawaii will have a bigger stadium.

And no other school will be located in talent-rich California.

“This is our opportunity to rise and shine and produce a dominant athletic program that competes for conference titles,’’ SJSU athletic director Tom Bowen said. “We have to seize the day.’’

The groundwork has been laid.

First-year coach Mike MacIntyre has expanded the Spartans’ recruiting efforts in California and intends to take advantage of the WAC’s new footprint by targeting prospects in Texas.

The program is on solid footing financially after clearing more than $1 million in profit from playing Alabama and Wisconsin. (The money will be reinvested in football to pay for recruiting, equipment and summer school for years to come.)

Bowen is in the process of raising money for two capital projects on the south campus, including a football facility adjacent to Spartan Stadium that would house a new training room and lockerroom. (He hopes to break ground as early as 2012.)

And next season — after years of penalties related to poor academic performance — the Spartans will have the full complement of 85 scholarships.

“Our mission has always been to have a diploma in one hand and a championship ring in the other,’’ Bowen said.

But success in the reconfigured WAC won’t be easily attained.

For all the infrastructure improvements, the Spartans must continue to expand fundraising to keep pace with the rising cost of scholarships and football operations.

They must schedule smartly, striking the right balance between attractive opponents and winnable games.

And, of course, they must get it done on the field.

There’s always that.

Jon Wilner

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I don’t mean to be argumentative, but San Jose State will not have the second largest stadium. The UTSA Roadrunners will play home games in the AlamoDome which seats 65,000. Texas State has a stadium that holds 30,000 which is about the same as San Jose State.

TrueSpartan

Spartans,
2012 – YES, I said 2012.

The Spartans will be pretty good in 2012.

Good news for the WAC and SJSU.

Red Cougar

The Spartans will be good in 2012 relative to WAC competition but I also remember thrashing Nevada in the early-2000s and, in what seemed like a blink of an eye, the Pack made SJSU look like an FCS program playing a BCS program. Look at what happened this season against Nevada.

carp

what an awful league.

OT

The WAC is not done with remodeling.

I would be more surprised if Hawai’i does NOT leave the WAC for the Big West (and football going indy).

That would leave the WAC with 7 football programs.

The BCS requires a non-AQ conference to have 8 football programs in order for the champion of that conference to have access to a BCS bowl other than the BCS Championship Game.

==

San Jose State is the dregs of FBS. The Texas schools, especially UTSA, will jump ahead of SJS within 5 years the way Nevada and Boise State moved ahead of SJS.

The New Mexico Bowl has already decided to change its bowl tie-in from the WAC to the Pac 12 starting with 2012.

Once the Humanitarian Bowl changes its bowl tie-in from the WAC to the Mountain West, and once Hawai’i goes indy in football and takes the Hawai’i Bowl bid with it, the “new” WAC ca. 2012 will be down to one bowl tie-in:

Poinsettia Bowl in 2012
San Francisco Bowl in 2013

Sacramento Blue

Wow, that’s one pretty bad league. Losing Boise, Fresno, and Nevada and adding an FCS school, a school that is forming its first team, and a school that doesn’t play football… wow. San Jose better do well in a league like that! D’oh!

No wonder Montana isn’t jumping. One could make a strong case that the Big Sky is a better conference than the WAC. I don’t mean this as a snark, but the WAC would be better off dropping down to FCS status. Seriously.

I saw in another thread that the FCS is considering dropping its championship playoff. I live in a Big Sky town, Sacramento, and had not heard that. is it true? If so, I can see how that might affect Montana’s future decisions.

Fire Starkey

carp- but San Marcos has lots of hot chicks. That at least is a bonus

StanTheMan

SJS should drop football and leave the WAC. I suspect the WAC will be dropped to FCS status with it’s current 2011 configuration.

Calfan

Calfan says:
November 11th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
How sad is it for the WAC when Div I bottom feeder North Texas and Division II hotshot Montana both turned them down. They’re down to nobodies. Quick, name the nicknames for the new WACkees: Texas State, Texas San Antonio, Seattle and Denver? Nope? Didn’t think so. So, it’s official. RIP the WAC. Can’t say you’ll be missed.

PS: I still think the UofPhoenix was a better choice. Much nicer stadium…

Stan the MAN (??) I see you are at it again. It would be good if you evaporated from the web site. Your negativism is not appreciated. Why don’t you go kick a barrel and see how that feels or get a anger management class.

Sacramento Blue

Calfan – Isn’t Phoenix an online Internet university? If so, that probably would be a good fit for the new WAC.

Sacramento Blue

Doug – ditto

Calfan

SacBlue: Phoenix is an online “univesity” and they don’t field a football team either – just like Texas San Antonio. Although with an alleged enrollment of over 400k students, I’m sure UofPhoenix can find enough bodies for a team that’d win the WAC circa 2012. Sad.

The MWC, with the impending loss of TCU, should forget about expanding East and just pick up the stragglers, SJSU, Idaho, NMS, SU, to form, essentially, the WACII. A nice regional conference that actually makes sense geographically and culturally.

SpartanDuffer

I’m also not very enthusiastic about this new WAC. Considering the teams lost and the teams added … this makes for very unattractive home schedules in our future.

My once proud Spartans have become a nobody in a soon-to-be nobody league. I’m praying for the MWC and WAC to wake-up, see the light, and consolidate. It just makes such good sense for those remaining schools. Why is this so obvious to everyone except the league officials and schools?

OT

@SpartanDuffer:

The MWC did what it was supposed to do: decapitate the WAC by taking Boise State, Fresno State, and Nevada.

The Big Sky did what it was supposed to do: take UC Davis and Cal Poly in order to saw off the WAC’s legs. The Big Sky will be in position to move up “en masse” from FCS to FBS in 5 to 10 years if the NCAA were to abolish the FCS playoffs and consolidate Division I football into a single level.

Hawai’i will soon do what it is supposed to do: ditch the WAC and go indy in football, and use the football TV rights fee from ESPN, Inc. to pay the Big West a travel subsidy so that its Olympic sports, particularly women’s volleyball, will be in a competitive league.

The WAC will soon be left with 7 football-playing schools (assuming that Utah State doesn’t leave as well), which means that even if the WAC Champion were to finish 12-0 in football, it would NOT be eligible as a “BCS Buster” unless it were ranked #1 or #2 and qualify for the BCS Championship Game.

(The BCS requires a non-AQ conference to have at least 8 football-playing members in order for its champion to get a berth in the Rose, Sugar, Orange, or Fiesta Bowl with a ranking of 12 or higher, or a ranking of 16 and higher than the ranking of the champion of an AQ conference.)

San Jose State’s best option would be for the Big West to expand, so that the Big West will have room for Hawaii, Sacramento State (which no longers needs to be a full member of the Big Sky now that the Big Sky is willing to take football-only members), San Jose State, Cal State Bakersfield (non-football school), and UC San Diego (another non-football school which wants to move up from Division II).

==

As for the WAC, it needs to raid the Southland Conference for more FCS upgrades now that the center of gravity of the WAC has shifted to Texas. Lamar is one possibility. Stephen F. Austin State and Sam Houston State are two others.

==

What would the Mountain West do if TCU were to depart for the Big East? Will the MWC stay at 9 schools or will the MWC take Utah State?

Sac State Fan!

Guys – For years I have been thinking we (Sac State) should have been in the mix w the WAC to minimize travel and build some awesome rivalries with our in state football brothers! (Low Travel expenses).

However after the SNUBBING for years, and the lack of vision that has been shown over the years, I am concerned for the WAC future.

The WAC is a “Reactive” conference rather than “Pro Active” program that had a PLAN in advance of the shuffle!

The ONLY way i could imagine Sac State wanting to join the WAC now is if somebody like Univ of Pacific brought back football, and Univ of San Diego or another semi local team also committed!

The TRAVEL looks pretty ridiculous, without knowing the revenue sharing opportunity, it seems like a VERY expensive and RISKY move to join the WAC nowadays!

Honestly – I wouldnt be surprised if San Jose State Administrators werent thinking how they could be a “BIG DOG” if they joined the Big Sky Conference and made a Southern Division!

I think it is a reality to at least look at that option! We all LOVE football but it is EXPENSIVE!!!

Go Hornets!

SpartanDuffer

I hate to say this, but maybe SJSU should step down and join the Big Sky. Why? I would much rather see UC Davis and Cal Poly play regularly at Spartan Stadium than Texas San Antonio and Texas State. Those 2 Texas schools have zero appeal in San Jose, or anywhere else in the country, other than Texas. I’m sure fans in Texas feel the same about San Jose State and Idaho.

The new WAC is not a match made in heaven … it’s more like a shotgun wedding.

Calfan

SJSU has to hope their sister schools, Fresno St. and San Diego St., lobby for their inclusion in the MWC. They are part of the same system after all.

Otherwise, they are better off stepping down to Div IA, and join the big sky to challenge Montana for supremacy there – and to build a local rivalry with Sac St., Cal Poly and Davis.

In the new WAC, SJSU is more than 1000k miles away from most of its competitors in… Texas, Hawaii and Louisiana!

(Hawai’i earns additional football TV revenue from its pay-per-view deal with Oceanic Time Warner Cable.)

If ERT were willing to pay Hawai’i at least $2 million in football TV rights fee each season as an independent (keep in mind that ERT offered BYU $8 million/season), one would expect Hawai’i to ditch the WAC.

The Big West expects Hawai’i to contribute about $500,000 in travel subsidy each school year.

==

San Jose State athletics belongs in the Big West (along with Long Beach, Fullerton, Northridge, etc.,) not the WAC or the Big Sky (Northridge still hasn’t recovered financially from its stint in the Big Sky 10 years or so ago.)

Had SJS dropped football 5 or 10 years ago, SJS would not be in the current predictament of having to play “bodybag” football games in order to pay the bills.

KenZ

I tend to agree that this whole WAC plan makes no sense; something isn’t always better than nothing. I’m a Pac10-er who lives in San Antonio (it’s UTSA btw, not Texas San Antonio). There’s no way these teams generate more revenue than their travel costs.

I’d rather see Cal State schools create a new conference along with the smaller UC’s. There’d be more natural rivalrys and a lot less travel for the players. Ditto for Texas which could easily form the core of a conference from UTEP, Texas State, UTSA, SMU, A&M Kingsville, etc. Then gradually add U of NM and NMSU.

OT

@Calfan:

Fresno State is different from San Jose State.

Fresno State athletics is the only “big time” sports product in Fresno whereas San Jose State athletics only makes news in the Bay Area (where the Giants, 49ers, and Raiders occupy the sports media) when something bad happens.

San Diego State is also different from San Jose State even though both are “commuter” schools. The Cal State system treats San Diego State as its “favorite son”. San Diego State is the only doctoral-granting school in the Cal State system.

San Jose State has more in common with Long Beach, Fullerton, and Northridge (urban commuters schools on the fringe of their media markets), all three of which dropped football several years ago.

Long Beach and Fullerton athletics both lived on after football with other showcase sports: Long Beach in men’s and women’s volleyball, Fullerton in baseball.

OT

@KenZ:

The smaller Cal State’s and the UC’s already have their own conference:

Big West Conference

San Jose State was once a member of the Big West Conference (through 1995-1996).

==

The Big West, which no longer sponsors football, is now configured for one purpose: to minimize travel cost.

EVERY Big West sports team now travels by van or bus to road games. No airplane travel is required. The Big West only has a small issue with snow impeding ground travel (U.S. 101 is available in case there is snow on I-5 through the grapevine.)

UC San Diego is looking to move up from Division II to Division I if the Big West were to expand.

Now that the Big Sky is willing to take football-only members (UC Davis and Cal Poly SLO), Sacramento State could conceivably keep football in the Big Sky and move everything else to the Big West if the Big West were to expand.

The Big West is interested in Hawai’i, but only if Hawai’i were to come up with a travel subsidy to cover all travel costs.

The Big West is the right fit for San Jose State, much more so than the WAC.

Calfan

OT: You obviously like the Big West, but if I were a SJSU alumn or fan I’d prefer the Big Sky. The key is, they get to keep playing football, which so many people seem to be intent on killing at SJSU. Why let a perfectly usable Spartan stadium go to waste? Montana and Sac St., and Davis make more attractive football opponents than UTSA.

Anyway, this all won’t happen bc the new WAC will continue truckin along… until the next wave of realignment. Cheers!

Iconoclast

Question for OT: Why do you have such a hard-on for SJS and the WAC?

What conferences schools play in, what level football they play in, how nice their stadium is – it’s all “bread & circuses”.

In the real world, the dollar is crashing, inflation is causing food prices to rise, oil is heading past $90. dollars a barrel, the TSA is using “porno scanners” to ogle us at airports, or invasive hand inspections by TSA personnel are akin to sexual molestations – and you really think that pissing on someone’s football program or the conference they play in is something worth thinking about and commenting on?

Sports is the “Toy Dept. of Life”. Try not to forget that.

OT

@Calfan:

UC Davis and Cal Poly will soon get the best of both worlds: Big West in all sports except football, Big Sky in football ONLY.

Keep in mind that UC Davis are Cal Poly are both residential schools where a captive audience exists for football.

Sacramento State, a commuter school, now has an “out” if the Big West were to expand, as the Hornets can keep playing football in the Big Sky even if the other sports move to the Big West.

Cal State Northridge nearly bankrupted itself about 12 years ago when it left the Big West for the Big Sky in all sports. Northridge finally saw the light and decided to 1) drop football, and 2) moved all other sports back to the Big West.

San Jose State is closer to Cal State Northridge than Sac State in profile: commuter school on the fringe of a media market where pro sports is king and college sports is nearly irrelevant,

tdmaximus

Some of you have a horrible perception of SJS. I don’t understand why OT and Calfan feel the need to kick my school around. But If you were not talking about us it’s because we didn’t have a football team. SJS football has the resources to compete again and in 3 to 5 years it will be beating Fresno, Stanford and Nevada. SJS first has to overcome 20 years of institutional neglect that ended in 2005. The university in 2005 upgraded athletics from a glorified intramural program to a true athletic program when it hired Bowen. Tom Bowen placed resources into academic support and got us out of the APR mess. That solved he has been working the last 2 years on capital investments which will enhance recruiting and give us the ability to attract name football opponents to Spartan Stadium. Take your shots now people because it is your last chance.

tdmaximus – fantastic statement !!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Like you I think that SJSU football will improve now that we have 85 scholarships next year and with coach MAC recruiting and the support from Tom Bowen and the president and alumni. All will be getting much better in the next two to three years for SJSU football and SJSU athletics in general. Spartans have hope and endurance. We will pull through against the adversity that we have faced.

Jacob Wang

How many people were calling for SJSU to drop football 4 years ago?

Texas Spartan

First, the likelihood that the AlamoDome would allow seating in the upper bowl for UTSA games is idiotic. Plan for the seating capacity for Roadrunner games to hover around 25,000 to 30,000.

Also, anyone who thinks Texas State and UTSA will be dogs for long are kidding themselves. The Bobcats have a legit quarterback that will be a junior by the time they join the WAC, just in time to make the Spartans look bad. Larry Coker is already recruiting strong classes for the Roadrunners. And in Texas, strong football programs are everywhere.

One can hope the Spartans will make the jump, but the two new Texas schools are poised to dominate the league, not SJSU or anyone else left.

Red Cougar

For those who criticize the new WAC and claim allegiance elsewhere go away please. SJSU couldn’t count on your support even if the Spartans joined the SEC.

The fact of the matter is those who are critical are fans of a specific program, not a fan of the game itself. Some of us can enjoy football regardless of who is playing and regardless if both teams are 0-11 or 11-0. I would bet these folks only have the ability to recognize the 50yd -pass and can’t appreciate a well-executed block, stunt, or other assignment.

topfan

I read all the comments and most of you are overthinking this whole thing. Remember: Winning fixes just about everything. No matter what league sj is in, they need to win more games and the rest will take care of itself. It worked pretty well for FSU, BSU, UNR, Utah, Montana, Cal Poly, etc. Winning programs, regardless of the conference, are always in a strong position.

Recruit, recruit, recruit, coach them up, stay out of NCAA trouble, and win as many games as you can!

Potrero

The recent decision by Montana not to move to the bowl subdivision shows that the hierarchy between I-A or I-AA has changed. The choice is between postseason play in a playoff structure with home games or a bowl game at AT&T park or Boise, Idaho. The notion that San Jose State will compete for a national bcs championship is unrealistic, but it can still compete for a national championship every year. Winning will build fan interest, Montana gets 30,000 fans because they are perceived as a winning team.

If San Jose State football joins FCS it will play Cal Poly, UC Davis and Sac State every year which are all natural regional rivalries. Cal Poly seems to be a great rival because the schools are both on 101.

California FCS schools play football-only in the big sky, and that conference may get as many as 5 automatic bids to the playoffs. Given how hard it is for Montana to get home games, I guess the 14 member conference will play a ten game schedule so they can guarantee five home games for schools in far flung locations.

There are four Pac 12 schools and would be 4 california fcs schools, so a one game every four years rotation would be pretty natural.

That would mean a known schedule with 4 games every year with good regional bragging rights.

The WAC has no regional rival for San Jose St, unless you consider Hawaii. They intend to be in the Big West for all non-football sports in two years and I think San Jose State should at least look at joining the Big West and the WAC football-only.

Ed Wayner

I think SJSU’s best bet is to get into the MWC. Here’s a 12 team MWC by adding SJSU and Hawaii

If TCU leaves, then replace them with UTEP. Conference will not be a strong but at least it will make sense geographically.

Sac State Fan!

Who Knows!!! We all love football, but somebody has to pay the bills! I think the Big Sky can RAISE PRICES to the 1A programs for those games you call “Tune Ups” but get LIT up by UC DAVIS!

REALLY? Expect that expense to rise now that the BIG SKY SCHOOLS have the Pac 12? and MWC to pay them $250K if you want to play us going forward? Im guessing the $150K was too low now!

Or you will need to charter a plane and travel to someplace in the mid west or east coast.

The BIG SKY has made itself a PLAYER on the WEST COAST! I am thinking they might have more fans in the Calif TV market than San Jose State does by itself for sure!

Maybe the Big Sky can get a TV deal now??? That would be prolific to see a 1AA team get a TV deal because of the team population in the market of California!

They are FORWARD thinking at the Big Sky! Let’s see what happens?
However if San Jose st were to look at the Big Sky Conf now is the time before we “Sign up” our last team TBD.

Go Hornets!

Texas Lumberjack

Texas Spartan, you really think Texas State will dominate the WAC? With the exception of 2005, Texas State has been cellar dwellers in the Southland Conference, and this year is no exception, with their last championship being in the early 1980s.

Get real..the WAC will be gone in 4 years.

TD Pig Skin

I know that the WAC needs some help. Utah Valley would be a great regional fit for the WAC. As long as the WAC is adding non football schools, UVU would be very competitive and easy to get in and out of, with the SLC airport.